“Successive
governments have run down our military capacity to dangerous
levels and trashed our relationship with our traditional
allies Australia and the USA.

“We are left with no
coherent defence policy and no sound strategy to ensure
collective security," Mr Hide said.

“Our defence
policy for years has been based on cost-cutting and the
gamble that we face a

benign future. It’s a false saving
and a gamble we will lose.

“There should be no doubt
that at some point our country will once again require our
armed forces to go into harm’s way for the purposes of our
defence. The tragedy is that young men and young women will
pay for our cost cutting and policy gamble with their lives.

“The RNZRSA are right. Their statement provides sound
analysis and a clear direction. We need to boost defence
spending as a percentage of GDP. We need to maintain a
balanced force including warships and attack aircraft. We
need to repair and strengthen alliances with proven friends
in particular Australia and the USA," Mr Hide said.

“The ACT party endorses the RNZRSA’s statement: we
challenge all other parties to do likewise."

It is (almost) possible to feel a bit sorry for the DHB negotiators engaged in the current nurses pay round. Come next Monday there’s every sign that nurses will resoundingly reject the pay offer the DHBs have put on the table, as being totally inadequate (a) as fair compensation for the crucial work that nurses do and (b) as a recruitment incentive for a workforce which is already under severe stress, and facing a demographic explosion in patients as the baby boomers lurch into old age. More>>

ALSO:

The Treasury has revised the child-poverty projections it provided to the Government in December 2017. As outlined in the Treasury’s 17 January media release, the previous estimate was based on code that included a modelling error...More>>

ALSO:

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has grave concerns over the use of a chemical nerve agent in the United Kingdom resulting in critically serious injuries to some of those exposed. More>>

ALSO:

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that Police were not justified in stopping vehicles at a vehicle checkpoint to identify individuals who had attended an “Exit International” meeting in Lower Hutt on 2 October 2016. More>>

When the book Hit and Run was published in March last year, the Chief of Defence Force Tim Keating held a press conference claiming the SAS had been in a different place on that date... The Defence Force has finally admitted that the “three photographs in the book are of Tirgiran Village”. More>>